In the professional audio industry, often multiple audio or audio-related signals originating from different sources (e.g., microphones, acoustic instrument pick-ups, electronic instruments, various signal processing equipment, etc.) need to be directed to various destinations (e.g., one or more mixing consoles, recording equipment, amplification equipment, signal processing equipment and the like). Conventionally, many audio signals originate as analog signals which are transferred over traditional copper wire cables. Other types of audio or audio-related signals may be generated by various equipment as digital signals that also may be transferred over conventional wire or fiber optic cables.
For many decades, the professional audio industry has employed (e.g., for live entertainment sound reproduction or recording environments) large numbers of individual copper wire cables, or bundled groups of multiple copper cables, commonly referred to as “audio snakes,” to transport multiple audio signals. These cables or snakes are transported from venue to venue, or built into permanent installations (e.g., concert halls, theatres, recording studios) to accommodate various audio needs. In some cases, the individual audio signal carriers are accessed by a “patch panel” at some central location, from which various audio equipment are coupled to the cables, and audio connections are particularly configured manually by an operator.
In recent years, the professional audio industry has been exploring the concept of transporting digital audio signals using conventional network techniques (e.g., Ethernet) and developing products in this area. These products are designed to serve as an alternative to conventional methods of transferring audio signals over traditional copper wire-based cables. In particular, such products generally are directed to transporting digital audio signals over local area Ethernet connections or scaled-back versions of store-and-forward packet-based networks that integrate computer software control with network technology. Typically, these products are both complex and expensive, and are aimed generally at providing potentially viable signal transport solutions for “high-end” installations and venues.
In general, proposed solutions for transporting digital audio signals are based on transferring data packets over a network topology. As a result, one issue germane to this technology is that of signal “latency,” or how long audio signals encoded as data packets take to get from a particular source of origination to a particular destination. Especially in connection with live sound reproduction, any significant signal latency caused by the network configuration is an undesirable artifact of signal transport.